REVIEW: Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor – The Last Adventure (Audio)

The Sixth Doctor faces death as he confronts the Valeyard one final time… (Credit: Big Finish)

“Carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice!”

Those were the last words the Sixth Doctor said on screen. When the show came back the next year, Colin Baker had not only been unceremoniously sacked from the role, but he hadn’t even been given a proper regeneration story. At the start of ‘Time & the Rani’, we see the Sixth Doctor regenerate into the Seventh…with both roles played by Sylvester McCoy, the former with McCoy wearing a blond wig. To say that the Sixth Doctor’s regeneration was disappointing is an understatement.

At the time, it had been assumed that he had regenerated from injuries after the TARDIS was attacked by the Rani. The specific cause of those injuries has always been something of a joke among fandom, as we never actually saw what his injuries were, although there have been plenty of guesses – banging his head on the console, falling off his exercise bike, although I think the biggest joke has to be ‘tumultuous buffeting’, according to Pip & Jane Baker’s novelization of the Seventh Doctor’s first story.

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But what if it was something else entirely that had caused the regeneration?

That’s the question Big Finish wanted to answer. For the first and more than likely only time, the company have done their own regeneration story with ‘Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor – The Last Adventure‘.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, compared to the TV series, at least, it’s a very different kind of regeneration story altogether. Told across four episodes, each a stand-alone story but linked by the presence of the Valeyard, ‘The Last Adventure’ is spread across the Sixth Doctor’s lifetime after ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’. As a result, it truly feels like a celebration of the Sixth Doctor as much as an ending to his era, especially across his Big Finish audios. Not just of all the wonderful stories told already, but of all the stories we have yet to hear.

This is instantly clear from the first episode, ‘The End of the Line’, as we meet Constance Clarke. Like Mel in ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’, her first appearance released is actually set in the middle of her friendship with the Sixth Doctor. She’s an interesting character, and we’re given some hints of a backstory, but understandably, her character isn’t explored in a great deal of depth at this point.

That doesn’t stop ‘The End of the Line’ from being a truly thrilling listen, of course. With a story of ordinary humans suddenly abducted to a strange location while travelling on public transport, there’s more than an echo of the Tenth Doctor episode ‘Planet of the Dead’. Which, considering both episodes begin an arc that hint at the end of each story’s respective Doctor, feels more than appropriate.

There are of course a few key differences between the two. One is that unlike ‘Planet of the Dead’, ‘The End of the Line’ is set a good long while before the Doctor’s next regeneration, although seeds are definitely sewn towards it. Another difference is that the story involves a train carriage instead of a bus. And one more way ‘The End of the Line’ is different from ‘Planet of the Dead’? It’s a much, much better story.

While ‘Planet of the Dead’ is enjoyable enough as a light-hearted bit of fluff, ‘The End of the Line’ is much more gripping, as more and more of the mystery is slowly revealed. There’s also some dark psychological horror involved as well, before the story grows into something larger scale. Much, much larger scale, in fact. It packs a lot into one hour, including wrong-footing the listener once or twice and having a brilliant ending that kicks the arc off into high gear. Certainly, a great start to the epic collection.

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Next: PAGE 2: The Red House & Stage Fright

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The Sixth Doctor faces death as he confronts the Valeyard one final time… (Credit: Big Finish)

The next episode, ‘The Red House’, is another great story that packs a lot into its running time. Set some time later when the Doctor is travelling with Charley Pollard (Edwardian Adventuress), the story involves a story about werewolves. Of course, this being Doctor Who, this story features a very different kind of werewolf altogether.

I’m a big fan of Charley Pollard. A wonderful companion that’s brave, bold and has a lot of fun on her travels, she also has a rather complex relationship with the Doctor – not least because she first travelled with his Eighth incarnation. Unsurprisingly, the Sixth Doctor is rather suspicious of her, particularly with her accidental references to worlds and monsters that she shouldn’t know about or have experience of. It’s why I rather enjoy the relationship between Colin’s Doctor and Charley, as it’s a very unique kind of Doctor/companion relationship, since the companion knows more than the Doctor in some key ways, without trying to rub his nose in it the whole time. This is set in the middle of their travels together, when Six has gotten to know Charley well but is still avoiding confronting her about who she truly is, so it’s a great jumping on point for new listeners.

This story begins rather light-heartedly, despite featuring werewolves, but steadily grows darker and more complex as it goes on. Characters you’d expect to be purely sadistic villains are slowly revealed to be less black-and-white than that, and at one point, you have to ask yourself: is the Doctor doing the right thing, or is he about to make a massive mistake?

As ‘The Last Adventure’ goes on, while in some ways, each episode’s story could stand on its own, there is one major character that binds them all together: the Valeyard. At first, the role he plays is small, but as the overall story goes on, his presence grows and steadily becomes more open and more dangerous.

This is especially clear with ‘Stage Fright’, where he is truly the villain of the piece, and a particularly monstrous one at that. The Doctor once again realises that his darker side is near, and with the Valeyard causing so many deaths, things start to get personal. There’s a rather grim tone to this story, and while the Valeyard in the previous episodes hasn’t exactly been heroic, here, he is much more horrifying, as he commits acts that remind us that, while he may share some of the Doctor’s memories, he is most definitely not the Doctor.

Along with its grim tone and horror, ‘Stage Fright’ is also rich in foreshadowing, particularly of the Doctor’s upcoming death. While from his own perspective, Six is still a long while away from facing his end, there’s a great deal of exploration of death, particularly of the Doctor’s. It’s a very appropriate story to have before the Sixth Doctor’s final act.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Especially with the return of two of my favourite characters: Jago & Litefoot. I’ve been a massive fan of these two ever since Fourth Doctor story ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’, and I never miss a single episode of their own spin-off series. It’s great to hear these two meet the Doctor again, especially since they briefly travelled with his Sixth incarnation.

But they’re not the only friends the Doctor has in this story. At this point in his life, the Doctor is travelling with Flip. Whereas the higher class and historical companions of Constance and Charley complimented the Sixth Doctor rather well, Flip works because her lower-class modern day London origins contrast with Colin Baker’s Doctor so beautifully.

I’ve always enjoyed the character of Flip. She has a habit of blundering into trouble without thinking, but that doesn’t stop her from being a great friend to the Doctor. In some ways, she’s rather like Donna – not exactly highly educated, but that certainly doesn’t stop her from being smart in her own way, getting key ideas and concepts that others might find hard to grasp.

Surprisingly, she also gets a lot of key development in this story, as we explore both her fear and her confrontation of it. There’s a beautiful scene towards the end that’s rather heart-warming, and while she currently doesn’t have many stories in the Big Finish range, her character is certainly a memorable one, and her return here has been more than welcome.

(Continued on next page)

Next: PAGE 3: Regeneration

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But the character who gets the most exploration in this episode is the Doctor. The wonderful thing about the Valeyard is that it allows us to explore not just the darker side of the Doctor but also the Doctor as a whole – his fears and his anger, as well as his courage and his strength. There’s a great deal of confrontation between the Doctor and the Valeyard that’s more full-on than in the previous episodes, and it really helps to explore both characters more before the final story.

And so we come to ‘The Brink of Death’. One final epic battle against the Valeyard, as all his schemes finally fall into place. Will the Doctor be able to stop him this time?

Obviously, I don’t want to reveal too much about this last episode. Not only do all the threads throughout ‘The Last Adventure’ build up so nicely towards it, but there’s one or two surprises that I’d rather not spoil, especially regarding the regeneration. I will say that, just as ‘The End of the Line’ had echoes of ‘Planet of the Dead’, so too does ‘The Brink of Death’ have echoes of both Tennant‘s and Smith‘s final episodes, ‘The End of Time’ and ‘The Time of the Doctor’, respectively. All three stories share themes of the Doctor not just fighting death, but in some ways, with the Doctor fighting the Valeyard — his own future, too.

I have to say that Liz White is fantastic as Genesta. Admittedly, I might be more than just a little bit biased, as White appeared in my other favourite TV series, Life on Mars, but she plays an absolutely brilliant character here. Hilarious and lots of fun, she’s a great character to have by the Doctor’s side as he approaches his final moments.

Michael Jayston is also once again on fine form as the Valeyard. Throughout all four episodes, he’s played a truly spectacular villain, and as he gloats over the Doctor’s impending doom, he really helps add to the feeling of complete despair in the finale. Easily one of the best things about ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’, I’m so glad that his villain has been brought back to face the Sixth Doctor in his final moments.

But of course, it’s Colin Baker who truly shines. As the Doctor approaches his end, we hear the very best of the Sixth Doctor: the courageous, the proud, the hero who will do whatever it takes to do what’s right. Towards the end, he makes the greatest sacrifice, perhaps greater than any other Doctor. What causes the regeneration doesn’t matter (although I will say it’s a darn sight better than ‘tumultuous buffeting’) as much as the choice that’s made. And as the Sixth Doctor faces his end, his actions help shape the birth of the Seventh Doctor, in more ways than one.

With ‘Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor – The Last Adventure’, Big Finish have truly excelled themselves. Not only are we given a truly emotional and heart-breaking ending to a Doctor who was long-overdue such a brilliant send-off, but we are also given a wonderful celebration of just how magnificent Colin Baker’s Doctor truly is. As the story ends, one thing is clear. In the words of the First Doctor:

“It’s far from being all over.”

Next: The Hypocrisy of the Fixed Point